Method and device at a dairy farm

Abstract

A method of disinfecting or sterilizing at least a portion of any of a resting, a milking, or a feeding station (3, 24, 26) provided with an animal identification device (18) and located in an area (1), in which milking animals are allowed to move, is provided. Each of the animals visiting the resting, the milking, or the feeding station is identified and is admitted to enter the station depending on the identification. The inventive method comprises the steps of retrieving information regarding the health of each of the animals entering the station; and automatically disinfecting or sterilizing the portion of the station only if the information retrieved reveals that an animal entering the station has an infection that is capable of being transmitted to other animals. The disinfection or the sterilization is performed after that said infectious milking animal has left the station.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to dairy farming, and to disinfection and sterilization related thereto.DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]When a milking animal, such as a cow, presents herself for milking it is important to ensure that the teat cups to be attached to the teats of the milking animal are clean and free of any condition that could contaminate the teats of the milking animal. Therefore, it is customary to clean the teat cups between milkings of milking animals, where either a cleaning liquid or pure water is used.[0003]It is also customary, for the same reason, to clean the teats of each milking animal prior to the attachment of the teat cups. For teat cleaning, dedicated teat cleaning cups or brushes may be employed.[0004]However, while such cleaning removes dirt from the teats and provides for an overall hygienic environment, there is nevertheless a risk of communicating infections, such as for instance...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011]It is in this respect a particular object of the invention to provide such a method and such a device that are effective, accurate, reliable, safe, and of low cost.

[0012]It is a further object of the invention to provide such a method and such a device that are easily implemented into existing dairy farm equipment.

[0014]By means of retrieving information regarding the health of each milking animal entering any of a resting, a milking, or a feeding station, and automatically disinfecting or sterilizing at least a portion of the station if the information as retrieved reveals that a milking animal entering the station has a transmittable infection, wherein the disinfection or the sterilization is performed after that the infectious animal has left the station, it can be safeguarded that no infections are transmitted via the station while the disinfection or the sterilization only has to be performed after a visit by an infectious animal. The at least portion of the station includes preferably surfaces that an infectious animal may come into contact with. Assuming that a large number of milking animals are healthy, the disinfection or the sterilization has only to be performed occasionally, and hence energy consumption is reduced and time is saved.

Problems solved by technology

The known disinfecting techniques are all energy and time consuming being used at an automatic milking machine to ensure that no infections are transmitted from animal to animal.

The high energy needed results in an inefficient disinfection or sterilization process, and the time delays introduced by the process result in an inefficient utilization of the milking machine, and as an automatic milking machine involves heavy expenditure and has a limited milk production capacity, such time delays may not be acceptable.

For instance, when milking animals are lying down in a resting stall small amounts of milk may leak, and as a consequence there is a risk of infection via the resting stalls.

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